Association of adiponectin and metabolic syndrome in women

BACKGROUND: An inverse association between serum adiponectin level and metabolic syndrome was seen in few studies. The aim of this study was to assess the association between serum adiponectin levels and metabolic syndrome in a sample of Iranian women from Kerman. METHODS: In a cross-sectional study 946 subjects were studied to determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and in a case control study (170 subjects for each group) the association between serum adiponectin levels and metabolic syndrome were investigated. Metabolic syndrome was defined using International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria. Socio-demographics factors and measures of waist circumference, blood pressure and lipid profiles were collected. Serum adiponectin level was measured by ELISA method. RESULTS: The prevalence of the metabolic syndrome was 36.7%. Mean of serum adiponectin level in individuals with metabolic syndrome was lower than individuals without it (10.5 ± 4.1 and 13.45 ± 5.6 μg/ml, respectively, p < 0.001). Low level of adiponectin was a good predictor for metabolic syndrome (a range of β coefficients out of -2.03 to -2.85 according to five models). Systolic blood pressure, body mass index (BMI) and diastolic blood pressure were independent predictors of serum adiponectin (p values were 0.001, 0.009 and 0.034, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: We found that adiponectin is negatively associated with metabolic syndrome. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure and BMI were identified as independent predictors.